Japan signs pact to supply defense equipment to Philippines

Jim Gomez

The Jakarta Post

Manila |
Mon, February 29, 2016 | 07:30 pm

Filipinos, together with Vietnamese expatriates display placards during a rally at the Chinese Consulate to protest China's island-building and deployment of surface-to-air missile system at the disputed Paracel Islands off South China Sea, Feb. 25, in the financial district of Makati city east of Manila, Philippines. (AP/Bullit Marquez) (AP/Bullit Marquez)

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Filipinos, together with Vietnamese expatriates display placards during a rally at the Chinese Consulate to protest China's island-building and deployment of surface-to-air missile system at the disputed Paracel Islands off South China Sea, Feb. 25, in the financial district of Makati city east of Manila, Philippines. (AP/Bullit Marquez)

Japan
signed an agreement Monday to supply defense equipment to the Philippines, the
first such Japanese defense pact in a region where the US allies have been
alarmed by China's aggressive advances in disputed territories.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin
said the agreement he signed with Japanese ambassador to Manila, Kazuhide
Ishikawa, provides a framework for the supply of defense equipment and
technology and would allow the Asian countries to carry out joint research and
development projects.

Future talks will determine what
defense equipment could be supplied, although Gazmin told reporters without
elaborating that Japan has initially offered a surveillance aircraft.

"This agreement would really
substantiate the Philippines and Japan being strategic partners," Gazmin
said in remarks during the signing ceremony at the Department of Defense in
metropolitan Manila which was not opened to the press. "Let me stress that
what underpins this agreement is not only our desire to enhance our respective
defense capabilities but also to contribute to regional peace and
stability."

Neither side mentioned China's
increasingly assertive behavior in disputed areas but that has been a major
security concern by both countries, which are close American allies. "It's
not directed against any country," Gazmin said of the new defense deal on Saturday.

The Philippines has turned to the
United States, and now Japan, as it scrambles to modernize its ill-equipped
military after territorial disputes with China began escalating four years ago.
Japan has a separate territorial spat with China that has flared on and off in
the East China Sea.

The Philippines' security
aspirations dovetail with Japan's nascent steps to be a larger security presence
in the region, where memories remain of its brutal World War II invasions.

The two countries have openly
brought their security and political ties to new
levels, including by holding joint naval search and rescue drills last year.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino
III and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have swapped visits and vowed to
intensify defense cooperation, sparking talks about a possible security pact
that will allow Japanese forces to hold larger drills with Filipino troops in
the Philippines. The Philippines has signed such visiting forces accords with
the United States and Australia.

Last year, Japan's parliament
approved contentious legislation that enhances the role of the country's
military by loosening post-World War II constraints. Its military can now
defend its allies even when the country isn't under attack and work more
closely with other nations.

Japan has forged similar pacts with
the US and Australia, but the Philippines is the first Southeast Asian country
to have such a defense deal with Tokyo, Gazmin said.

Aside from China and the
Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have conflicting claims in
the South China Sea, a major conduit for world trade. The US lays no claims to
the waters, but says it has an interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and
overflight and non-use of force and coercion to assert claims.